Writing is hard. Just putting that sentence out there is laughable, because it seems so obvious. The fact that we know it doesn’t make it go away, but it does mean there are many opportunities to make it less painful.

A good process means understanding that the nature of writing is more than putting words on a page. It’s about iteration and collaboration — giving the conversation around the text equal weight with the text itself. Our tools need to set the stage for these conversations to happen with as little friction as possible.

The inimitable Mandy Brown — an editor, designer, and colleague of mine from both Typekit and A Book Apart — has had the itch to do something about this for as long as I’ve known her. When she asked me to help her, I signed right up. Before I knew it, we were joined by friends and talented heavyweights, Ethan Marcotte and David Yee. Shortly afterwards we hired Rob Brackett, following his stint at Code for America. I’m humbled to count myself among such an amazing group of folks.

We’re making a new platform for writers and editors called Editorially. Our goal is to make the very best tool for writing — one that helps you collaborate, and so helps you write better.